4 ms·

For the love of all that is holy let us split our netflix account out! My user is on my brothers account from when we lived together a long time ago. Every year

by Dobbs 7y ago

For the love of all that is holy let us split our netflix account out! My user is on my brothers account from when we lived together a long time ago. Every year I check to see if there is a way to split the user out. Every year I remain disappointed and continue on using the same account.

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
Is there some sort of data you require from your user? I guess there's a preferences algorithm you may have cultivated, but that's really it. Unless you really care about having handcrafted the Netflix algorithm, it kind of feels like that's just an excuse.
- croon 7y ago
  I have the premium Netflix subscription level (4 streams), and Netflix accounts are personal. Obviously I share this with my wife and daughter. I want to split out my accounts too, for both the above reason, and that I don't like sending them a password so they can log in on their devices. Why can't we have our own accounts and manage them into a family account? But since accounts are personal, do Netflix expect me to watch 4 streams simultaneously on my 4 different devices, using my 4 eyes with my 4 brain halves? I recognize that I'm probably not classified under "password cheat", but their still current solution feels really dirty.
  - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
    Yeah, that's a different use case than above - I'm fairly certain that's exactly what the family plan is meant to be used for - multiple users in the same household. Even then it's not great that you have to share the master account password which contains the billing information (maybe they need a read-only and admin password, but now we're complicating it past the "password123" crowd), but really that seems to inadvertently encourage good password discipline - if you don't trust the people using your account, they probably don't qualify as a user on your account.
    - ghaff 7y ago
      Some of us who have at least some involvement with security do have to cringe a bit at this. Yeah, I have a unique password for Netflix and there's only so much harm someone with access to the account could do. But don't share passwords even with people you trust is still ingrained enough that it just feels wrong and certainly isn't a good practice in general. Who knows who a kid, for example, is going to share the password with? Though, as you say, requiring the password to be shared to share the account probably helps limit how casually people will give others access.
      - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
        Yup, and as they are in your household, there's little reason for them to actually know the password - if you're physically in the household with them, you could easily log them on yourself without ever telling them.
      - croon 7y ago
        This is exactly my problem. I can't imagine any less than at least 75% of all engineers at Netflix cringing at the current solution regarding shared passwords. A further gripe is them not having a netflix.com/link system in place for settop boxes, so I need to enter a randomized 30+ character/multi-word phrase or whatever scheme password using a directional remote on my Nvidia Shield. Not often, but when I do it's with seething rage.
  - kranner 7y ago
    > But since accounts are personal, do Netflix expect me to watch 4 streams simultaneously on my 4 different devices, using my 4 eyes with my 4 brain halves? Netflix accounts are not personal. Their terms of use fully support shared use within the same household. That's why they support multiple user profiles per account.
- Dobbs 7y ago
  Things that you have watched, things you want to watch. Movie ratings (although these seem to be going away more and more). Lots of data.
daedalus_j 7y ago
Agree. I'm in the same situation. A huge part of the value of Netflix to me is that it remembers what I've watched before, even when I haven't. "Oh hey, new season of that show I liked several years ago? I'll watch that!" If they bust my best friend and I for sharing an account now that we no longer live together that's fine, but I simply won't re-subscribe unless they can move my profile over. I think this illustrates a massive flaw in the current streaming wars. The content is only half the value. Remembering which shows you liked and want to see more of, and which shows you've watched and decided you hated, etc, is a huge value in the increasingly large sea of available content. (And recommendations too, if they're good. I subscribe to Spotify almost exclusively for the recommendations it provides and discovery of new things I like.)

by Dobbs 7y ago

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago

Is there some sort of data you require from your user? I guess there's a preferences algorithm you may have cultivated, but that's really it. Unless you really care about having handcrafted the Netflix algorithm, it kind of feels like that's just an excuse.

croon 7y ago
I have the premium Netflix subscription level (4 streams), and Netflix accounts are personal. Obviously I share this with my wife and daughter. I want to split out my accounts too, for both the above reason, and that I don't like sending them a password so they can log in on their devices. Why can't we have our own accounts and manage them into a family account? But since accounts are personal, do Netflix expect me to watch 4 streams simultaneously on my 4 different devices, using my 4 eyes with my 4 brain halves? I recognize that I'm probably not classified under "password cheat", but their still current solution feels really dirty.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
  Yeah, that's a different use case than above - I'm fairly certain that's exactly what the family plan is meant to be used for - multiple users in the same household. Even then it's not great that you have to share the master account password which contains the billing information (maybe they need a read-only and admin password, but now we're complicating it past the "password123" crowd), but really that seems to inadvertently encourage good password discipline - if you don't trust the people using your account, they probably don't qualify as a user on your account.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Some of us who have at least some involvement with security do have to cringe a bit at this. Yeah, I have a unique password for Netflix and there's only so much harm someone with access to the account could do. But don't share passwords even with people you trust is still ingrained enough that it just feels wrong and certainly isn't a good practice in general. Who knows who a kid, for example, is going to share the password with? Though, as you say, requiring the password to be shared to share the account probably helps limit how casually people will give others access.
    - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
      Yup, and as they are in your household, there's little reason for them to actually know the password - if you're physically in the household with them, you could easily log them on yourself without ever telling them.
    - croon 7y ago
      This is exactly my problem. I can't imagine any less than at least 75% of all engineers at Netflix cringing at the current solution regarding shared passwords. A further gripe is them not having a netflix.com/link system in place for settop boxes, so I need to enter a randomized 30+ character/multi-word phrase or whatever scheme password using a directional remote on my Nvidia Shield. Not often, but when I do it's with seething rage.
- kranner 7y ago
  > But since accounts are personal, do Netflix expect me to watch 4 streams simultaneously on my 4 different devices, using my 4 eyes with my 4 brain halves? Netflix accounts are not personal. Their terms of use fully support shared use within the same household. That's why they support multiple user profiles per account.
Dobbs 7y ago
Things that you have watched, things you want to watch. Movie ratings (although these seem to be going away more and more). Lots of data.

daedalus_j 7y ago

Agree. I'm in the same situation. A huge part of the value of Netflix to me is that it remembers what I've watched before, even when I haven't. "Oh hey, new season of that show I liked several years ago? I'll watch that!" If they bust my best friend and I for sharing an account now that we no longer live together that's fine, but I simply won't re-subscribe unless they can move my profile over. I think this illustrates a massive flaw in the current streaming wars. The content is only half the value. Remembering which shows you liked and want to see more of, and which shows you've watched and decided you hated, etc, is a huge value in the increasingly large sea of available content. (And recommendations too, if they're good. I subscribe to Spotify almost exclusively for the recommendations it provides and discovery of new things I like.)